Enterprise software systems receive, generate, and store data related to many aspects of an enterprise. Users operate reporting tools to access such data and display the data in graphic visualizations. Typically, a user operates a reporting tool to define attributes (e.g., Sales by Country) of a desired result set and a type of visualization (e.g., bar graph, pie chart, line chart) which will be used to present the result set.
Some reporting tools allow a user to change the attributes of a displayed visualization. In response to such changes, the displayed visualization is modified to present a new result set. Moreover, the data of a displayed visualization may be expanded or collapsed (i.e., drilled-down or rolled-up) by manipulating the visualization using a mouse or other input device.
A user may require multiple visualizations to sufficiently analyze data and/or to illustrate findings derived from the data. Conventionally, each of the multiple visualizations must be created independently. While some systems may allow copying of an existing visualization and application of modifications thereto, such an approach provides only modest efficiency gains, and is unsuitable for intuitively exploring stored data and/or illustrating relationships therebetween.